DOCUMENT RESUME SO 032 631 ED 451 115 Stanik, Joseph T. AUTHOR A Walking Tour of Islamic Cairo: An Interactive Slide TITLE Lecture. Fulbright-Hays Summer Seminars Abroad Program, 2000 (Egypt and Israel). Center for International Education (ED), Washington, DC. SPONS AGENCY 2000-00-00 PUB DATE 39p.; Slides not available from ERIC. NOTE Classroom Teacher (052) Guides PUB TYPE MF01/PCO2 Plus Postage. EDRS PRICE Architecture; *Built Environment; Curriculum Enrichment; DESCRIPTORS High Schools; Higher Education; *Islamic Culture; Middle Eastern History; *Municipalities; Simulation; Social Studies; Study Abroad; *Travel; World History *Egypt (Cairo); Fulbright Hays Seminars Abroad Program; IDENTIFIERS Walking Tours ABSTRACT This curriculum project, a lesson on Islamic Cairo, could be used in a unit on Islamic civilization in an advanced placement high school world history or world civilization course, or it could be used in a college level Middle Eastern history or Islamic civilization course. Upon completion of the lesson, students will be able to describe in writing the appearance and function of Islamic Cairo, a living example of a medieval Islamic city. The lesson takes the form of an interactive slide lecture, a simulated walking tour of 25 monuments in Islamic Cairo. The lesson strategy is described in detail, including materials needed and a possible writing assignment. The lesson first provides'a brief architectural history of Cairo and a short description of the different minaret styles found in Cairo. The lesson then addresses the slides, each representing a monument, and includes historical and architectural information and discussion questions for each. Contains 12 references. (BT) Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. Islamic Cairo: A Walking Tour of An Interactive Slide Lecture By Joseph T. Stanik Academy Walbrook High SchoolUniform Services 2000 Edgewood Street Baltimore, MD 21216 410-396-0631 itstanikworldnet.att.net U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION Office of Educational Research and Improvement PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE AND EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC) DISSEMINATE THIS MATERIAL HAS This document has been reproduced as BEEN GRANTED BY received from the person or organization originating it. Minor changes have been made to improve reproduction quality. Points of view or opinions stated in this TO THE EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES document do not necessarily represent INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC) official OERI position or policy. Curriculum Project 2000 Fulbright-Hays Seminars Abroad Program--Summer Modernity" "Egypt and Israel: Between Tradition and © 2000 AVAILABLE COPY BEST 2 Islamic Cairo: A Walking Tour of An Interactive Slide Lecture Introduction Objective unit on Islamic civilization in an This interactive lesson can be incorporated into a world history or world civilization course. This advanced placement or honors high school-level Middle Eastern history or Islamic civilization lesson can also be incorporated into a college-level writing the this activity, students will be able to describe in course. Upon completion of city. Islamic Cairo, a living example of a medieval Islamic appearance and function of Strategy lecture: a simulated walking tour of This lesson will take the form of an interactive slide passive, teacher-centered lesson--a lecture- - Islamic Cairo. This teaching strategy transforms a activity unfolds, students observe, analyze, and into an active, participatory experience. As the projected on a screen in front of them. For each slide or act out images of Islamic Cairo that are from basic will ask the students a number of questions that progress groups of slides, the teacher in the lecture, the teacher will ask students to act out a scene to complex. At selected points lesson, the teacher records important notes on a being shown to them. During the course of the the side of the main screen. Seeing chalkboard or overhead transparency, which is located to learn and remember important facts. images and notes simultaneously helps students "walking tour" in its entirety. Teachers are Teachers are not required to undertake the detail and ask as many questions as they deem free to do all or part of it and can go into as much experience the whole tour; others may appropriate. Some teachers may want their students to and handful of monuments. Either option is acceptable only devote enough class time to "visit" a of what a medieval Islamic city looked like and will contribute to the student's understanding what life was like for its inhabitants. Materials slide photographs taken by the author in Primary source materials include field notes and materials include slide photographs, books, and Cairo in June and July 2000. Secondary source the list of references at the author in either Cairo or the United States. See maps purchased by the and professional slides. end of the project for published works, maps, available upon request for a nominal Copies of slide photographs taken by the author are fee. 3 Questions particular scene is the student's understanding of a The use of questions that facilitate For each slide or group of of this interactive slide lecture. essential to attaining the objective increasingly more difficult. In the set of questions that are slides, the teacher should prepare a sample questions. Some has included for each slide one or more lesson that follows, the author recall of facts; others require the use complex. Some require the simple are basic; others are very the image at hand but also reinforce The questions not only analyze of higher level thinking skills. example, for the slide of and Middle Eastern history. For knowledge of Islamic civilization provided two questions: one contained a hospital, the author has Qalawun's monument, which the accomplishments of the minaret and the other discussing analyzing the architectural style of medieval Islamic physicians. Background Notes short description of the architectural history of Cairo and a This project includes a brief and architectural background Cairo. Furthermore, historical different minaret styles present in the "walking tour" of Islamic the monuments "visited" on information is included for each of Cairo. Evaluation the students' the teacher may wish to assess After completing the walking tour, assignment. The following requiring them to complete a writing knowledge and understanding by is a sample essay topic: Cairo Venetian merchant who has traveled to Imagine that it is 1325 and you are a six months, you send your family a mission. After living in Cairo for to operate a trade experienced for the past half what you have seen and detailed letter in which you describe year. What do you think consider the following points: (1) Before you begin to write, fourteenth-century Cairo? (2) remarkable architectural features of are some of the most of medieval Cairo? And the politics, economy, and culture What have you learned about Cairenes? the way of life of fourteenth-century (3) What have you learned about what you have in Venice in which you describe Now, write a letter to your family during your stay in medieval Cairo. seen and experienced 2 4 History of Cairo A Brief Architectural Cairo's is designed to acquaint students with This Fulbright-Hays Curriculum Project of what life was like possible for them to gain an appreciation historic Islamic identity and make it in a medieval Islamic city. Monuments in Cairo: A Practical Guide, wrote: Caroline Williams, the author of Islamic Ages in a single find a dozen buildings from the Middle "The traveler is commonly pleased to house of Islamic the score. It is an unequaled treasure European city. Cairo has them by David visitors pass by in ignorance." Similarly, architecturea treasure house that most Cairo "the best Smithsonian World video "Islam," called McCullough, the narrator of the preserved medieval city in the world." the most Islamic quarter of Cairo presents one of There can be no doubt that the historic experience the grandeur of classical Islamic remarkable landscapes on earth. If you want to visit of the tales of the Arabian Nights, then come civilization or seek to capture the magic inhabitants still medieval monuments still stand and its Cairo's Old City, where many of its affairs as they did in the Middle Ages. conduct their personal lives and public history of this project, a brief overview of the Although the Old City is the subject of Cairo, Old City, Within these pages, the terms Islamic Cairo might be beneficial to the reader. of Cairo that stretches interchangeably. They refer to the section and historic city will be used the Mosque of Ibn Tulun in the south. from Fatimid al-Qahira in the north to of the Old Kingdom of city of Memphis became the capital In approximately 3100 BC, the Valley--a strategic junction of the Nile Delta and the Nile Egypt. Memphis was located at the and Red Seas. The site Egypt and between the Mediterranean position between Upper and Lower bank of the Nile kilometers south of modern Cairo on the west of Memphis is about twenty-three River. guard the old invaders built a fortress, named Babylon, to In the sixth century BC, Persian Heliopolis, approximately ten located near the ancient city of Pharaonic river crossing, which was bank of the Nile at Heliopolis was established on the east kilometers northeast of modern Cairo. around 2000 BC -- the western end of a canal--completed the apex of the Nile Delta and near Red Sea. which connected the Nile with the legionary fort on the site Ptolemaic Dynasty in 31 BC, built a The Romans, who ended the Upper Egypt, The fort, which controlled access to of Babylon, calling it Babylon-in-Egypt. Cairothe Coptic and major commercial center. Old became an important frontier outpost fort. corresponds to the location of the Roman quarter of present-day Cairo -- Empire, became the official religion of the Roman In the fourth century AD, Christianity Christ had only one declared a heresy over its belief that but Egyptian or Coptic Christianity was Egyptian church. Several orthodox Roman authorities persecuted the nature. Consequently, becoming a populous fort and surrounding area, which was Christian churches were built in the settlement. Empire--the Arabia wrested Egypt from the Byzantine In AD 641, Muslim armies from oppression of the Coptic Church. The Roman Empire--and ended the successor to the Eastern which is derived from the city of al-Fustat, the name of Arab general, `Anir ibn al-`As, founded "camp." Al-Fustat Greek word fossaton, both of which mean the Latin word fossutum and the 3 5 of the Muslims popularly called the Fortress the old Roman fort, which the was established near important meeting point for for the Muslim army, became an Greeks. Al-Fustat, initially a camp `Amr assigned To prevent tribal conflict within his army, Muslims from Asia and North Africa. into a single al-Fustat. The quarters eventually merged each tribe to a different quarter within in Africa on a site near the Nile; souqs sprang up near settlement. `Amr also built the first mosque the mosque. replaced the Umayyad the Abbasid caliphs of Baghdad In the middle of the eighth century, burned al-Fustat, and general, Sahih ibn 'Ali, invaded Egypt, caliphs of Damascus. The Abbasid al-Fustat. Nothing of al- ("the cantonment"), northeast of established a new settlement, al-`Askar would serve later rulers and prototype for royal cities that `Askar remains today, but it provided a their courts. the Abbasid of Samarra in northern Iraq, became In 868, Ahmad ibn Tulun, a native Dynasty. ruler and established the Tulunid He soon became an independent governor in Egypt. al-`Askar to house the members al-Qata'i' ("the wards") northeast of Ibn Tulun built a new town, Samarra. The new town, forces. Al-QataT was modeled after of his court and elite military grand buildings, including commercial center at al-Fustat, contained which was separate from the The for tournaments and sporting events. and mosque, and ample open space a hospital, palace, the west side. the east side of the city from the mosque on main square separated the palace on destruction of al-Qata'i' by is the only building to survive the Ibn Tulun's magnificent mosque loyal Abbasid troops in 905. Gawhar al-Siqilli took al-Mu'izz li-Din Allah and his general By the time the Fatimid ruler known as Misr. into a major urban area popularly control of Egypt in 969, al-Fustat has grown and al- Qata'i'. The Fatimids the remaining portions of al-`Askar The larger city had incorporated about three kilometers after a city in their native Tunisia, founded a new city, named Mansiriya and loyal soldiers of the designed to house the court officials northeast of Misr. Mansiriya was several gates. The walls surrounded by mud brick walls containing Fatimid caliphs. The city was Mansiriya was renamed al- their Sunni countrymen. In 974, protected the Shi'a Fatimids from Al-Mu'izz li-Din planet Mars, which was in the ascendant. Qahira ("the victorious"), after the Allah proudly made it his capital. wide, in shape and was laid out with Al-Qahira of the Fatimids was generally square religious festivities. for parks, military parades, and straight streets and plenty of open space for al-Mu'izz of the city's area were two palaces: one Taking up approximately twenty percent South of The two palaces were separated by an open area. and a smaller one for his son al-`Aziz. al-Azhar ("the radiant"). Al-Azhar, large mosque and university, the palaces, the Fatimids built a eventually became a great started out as a Shi'a institution but which was established in 989, construction of the al-Hakim mosque at The early Fatimids also started center of Sunni learning. burying their nobles in very 990 and began the tradition of the northern edge of the city in the use of heavy stone introduced the dome, the keel arch, and elaborate mausolea. The Fatimids the only surviving buildings and university and al-Hakim mosque are masonry. Al-Azhar mosque comprise the core of Cairo until the The city of the Fatimids would from the early Fatimid period. nineteenth century. by the of its history, al-Qahira was inhabited For the first one hundred and twenty years people were special guests, and loyal troops. The common caliph, his court, close companions, the other hand, al-Fustat functioned city without special permission. On not allowed to enter the 4 metropolis. In the eleventh century, the and commercial heart of the greater as the financial al-Fustat reach half a million. combined population of al-Qahira and Fatimid armies, Badr al- ordered the commander of the In 1074, Caliph al-Mustansir enlarged the city, replacing the within the ranks. Afterwards, Badr Gamali, to put down a revolt and impressive gates. Badr al-Siqilli with magnificent stone walls mud brick walls of Gawhar li-Din Allah Street which is still evident today. Al-Mu'izz preserved the original street pattern, al-Gamaliya nearly parallel to it to the east is the city from north to south, and runs the length of al-Futuh to the north and still standing: Bab an-Nasr and Bab Street. Three of Badr's gates are Bab Zuweyla to the south. who had marched keep it out of the hands of Crusaders, In 1168, al-Fustat was burned to displaced residents of al- Fatimid government permitted the into Egypt from Jerusalem. The the noble town into a crowded inside the walls of al-Qahira, turning Fustat to take up residence and thousands filled with narrow, irregular streets metropolis. The once open spaces were soon of shops and residences. Cairo from the from Syria in 1169 with an army to rescue Salah ad-Din al-Ayyubi arrived al-Qahira, and became a the Crusaders to retreat from threat of the Crusaders. He forced abolished the Fatimid Caliphate Fatimid government. He soon powerful wizir, or official, in the ad-Din's rise to power, dynasty, the Ayyubids. With Salah and established a new hereditary of Sunni Islam. Egypt returned to the sphere the city. He religious and educational institutions to Salah ad-Din introduced several new khanqahs, hostels for Sufis, Muslim the study of Sunni law, and established madrasas, schools for and splendid mausolea. impressive palaces, great residences, mystics. The Ayyubids also built buildings were erected that in the city; along busy streets, They also encouraged commerce floor. and living quarters on the upper contained shops on the ground floor fortress located southwest construction of the Citadel, a huge In 1176, Salah ad-Din began the Originally built as a defense against edge of the Muqattam Hills. of al-Qahira on the western Egyptian rulers until the residence for the majority of Crusaders, the Citadel would serve as a twentieth century. for Egyptian troops into the nineteenth century and as a barracks slave-soldiers of the governed by the Mamluks, the former From 1250 to 1517, Egypt was Bahri and Burgi. The Bahri Mamluk rule into two periods: Ayyubids. Historians divide they were garrisoned on the They were so named, because Mamluks ruled from 1250 to 1382. The Burgi Mamluks ruled from River. (Bahr is Arabic for "sea.") Island of Rhoda in the Nile in the towers of the Citadel. named because they were quartered 1382 to 1517. They were so (Burg is Arabic for "tower.") the Mamluks were and their reputation for ruthlessness, Despite their martial background magnificent buildings and architecture, and some of Cairo's most great devotees of art and Cairo expanded rapidly in Furthermore, under the Mamluks, monuments date from their era. from Mamluks became incredibly rich old Fatimid boundaries. The several directions beyond its wealth to make Cairo the most trade and used their fabulous their dominance of east-west spectacular city in the world. metropolis of incalculable the city of the Arabian Nights: a Cairo of the Mamluks became and bazaars full of exotic wares, cruel merchants from far off lands, wealth, magnificent buildings, of saints and sinners. capricious rulers, and a population huge complexes, which cruciform-shaped madrasa and built The Mamluks developed the 5 7 madrasas, and mausolea, components, such as mosques, combined multiple integrated building facilities to their mausolea in the rulers would attach public religious into one structure. Mamluk deeds and regard them as would eventually forget their ruthless hope that the people of Cairo wikalas (multipurpose witnessed the construction of several champions of the faith. The city and living spaces on the upper and stables on the bottom floor buildings with commercial spaces combined public cistern and (public baths), and sabil-kuttabs (a floors), khanqahs, hammams heeded benefactors who constructed sabil-kuttabs Quranic school for boys). Wealthy knowledge for mercies are water for the thirsty and Muhammad's saying that "the two greatest the ignorant." The first type was a cruciform structure The Mamluks built madrasas of two types. courtyard. The halls) facing each other across a central containing four great iwans (vaulted consisted of a modified cruciform end of the Mamluk period. It second type appeared toward the central courtyard was shrunk to vestigial size, and the plan. The east and west iwans were wooden lantern roof. reduced and topped with a of Cairo's richest plan for the private residences The Mamluks also introduced a new flanked by a vaulted room, large, central hall, called the qa'a, inhabitants. Their design featured a side. or iwan, on each ablaq characterized by two decorative features Mamluk buildings are frequently carvings found inside domes and muqarnas (detailed stalactite (interlocking red and white stone) tower to a more transformed the minaret from a short, square and portals). The Mamluks also introduced the decorated middle of the Mamluk era, architects slender, circular structure. In the This design was followed by consisted of a carved zigzag pattern. dome. At first, the decoration The art of stone-carved dome designs, or a combination of the two. star patterns, floral the Ottomans. construction was not continued by al-`Aziz and replaced Fatimid palaces of al-Mu'izz and The Mamluks demolished the old al-Mu'izz Street and the great which stands on the east side of them with the Bashtek Palace ibn Qalawun, and Barquq sultans Qalawun, an-Nasir Muhammad complexes built by the Mamluk palaces evolved parade ground between the two of the street. The once splendid on the west side Cairo. Nevertheless, the space commercial thoroughfare of medieval into the qasaba, the main al-Qasrayn ("between the two complexes is still known as Bayn between Bashtek Palace and the the qasaba to the area commercial activity shifted away from palaces"). Over time, cultural and al-Ghuri. complex of buildings built by Sultan around al-Azhar and the and Cairo was at the height at the peak of their power In 1325, when the Mamluks were of bazaars, visited this fabled medieval city Arab traveler Ibn Battuta first of its fortunes, the great "Mistress of broad provinces and dictated this tribute to Cairo: domes, and minarets. He later all beauty and splendor, she shelters profusion of buildings, peerless in fruitful lands, boundless in the foolish, the and the gay, the prudent and learned and the ignorant, the grave you will of the all with her throngs of folk, yet for Like the waves of the sea she surges noble and the base. . . . is hold their number. Her youth and her power to sustain can scarce the capacity of her station shifts from the mansion of fortune." the length of days. Her reigning star never ever new despite described living conditions in of Cairo: The City Victorious, Max Rodenbeck, the author fourteenth-century: Cairo at its zenith in the early before the great plague of reached half a million or more just Its population may have since the decline of Rome. the Western world had seen 1348, making it the biggest city 6 8 of ten and, by one like a lofty mountain. Buildings From a distance it was said to look wide and crowded towered over streets only a few yards account, even fourteen stories hundreds, even single such tenement might house "thick as locusts" with wayfarers. A thousands of people. . . buildings architects grew skilled at squeezing their Land values rose so high that and retracting entrances, and angling towers into odd-shaped plots, chamfering corners, such the streets. Off the main thoroughfares windows to maximize their exposure to overhead, many alleys packed tight and leaning closely tactics were useless. With houses bats to fly in daytime. were dark enough for because merchants began calling the city "Cairo," During the late Middle Ages, Italian pronouncing al-Qahira. they were having great difficulty through a pasha, or took control of Egypt, ruling the country In 1517, the Ottoman Turks Ottoman rule and after the sultan in Constantinople. Under viceroy, appointed by the Ottoman and trade steadily Far East, Cairo's prestige, wealth, discovery of an all-water route to the civilization had become a the magnificent center of Islamic declined. By the eighteenth century, Ottomans, however, behind much of the world. Under the provincial capital, which was falling The Ottomans constructed especially westward toward the Nile. the city continued to expand, minarets) and built over one style (large flat domes and pencil-thin several mosques in the Turkish the city. hundred sabil-kuttabs throughout general, Napoleon rich colony in India, the French Hoping to sever Britain from its violently suppressing a After defeating the Mamluk army and Bonaparte, invaded Egypt in 1798. Following the French the country for the next three years. popular uprising, his forces occupied Egypt. An Ottoman appointed Muhammad 'Ali pasha of evacuation in 1801, the Ottoman sultan established his own dynasty and set out to Macedonian origins, Muhammad 'Ali army officer of built, Under his leadership, wide boulevards were modernize and westernize his adopted country. style and European designs. constructed that combined Turkish and several buildings were of Egypt, and during his grandson Ismail became the ruler In 1863, Muhammad `Ali's edge of Cairo altered the appearance of Cairo. The western sixteen year reign he significantly of the Nile. Ismatil's architects today's Midan Opera to the bank expanded from the area around end of the modern, European-style city. By the transformed the former marshland into a existed along side the historic city. nineteenth century, a European Cairo financial interest in the Egypt to protect their controlling In 1882, the British occupied British continued the efforts of in 1869. During their tenure, the Suez Canal, which had opened amenable to Europeans. transform Cairo into a great city Muhammad 'Ali and his descendants to in Garden City on the improved and elegant villas were built The public transportation system was in the river. Gezira, the larger of the two islands east bank of the Nile and spectacularly with new Cairo's population has grown Since the July 1952 Revolution, bank of the Nile is directions. The once sparsely populated west communities sprouting up in all Muqattam going up in the desert east of the the satellite cities, and suburbs are now built up with Hills. of approximately heart of a gigantic metropolitan area Today, Islamic Cairo lies at the diminished the identity of the push for modernization has sixteen million people. Unfortunately, cuts Fatimid al-Qahira major east-west road, Sharia al-Azhar, now the Old City. For example, a of the Old City are the magnificent buildings and monuments in two. Furthermore, many of 7 9 rapidly deteriorating and in desperate need of repair. Nevertheless, hundreds of classic structures still line its streets, offering the visitor a rich, exciting visual experience. Islamic Cairo is a unique historic environment, because its colorful inhabitants still live, work, shop, socialize, and pray as they did several hundred years ago. The Minarets of Cairo No two minarets in the "City of 1000 Minarets" are the same, but they do fit into broad categories. By knowing the categories, it is possible to identify the period in which a monument was built. Students can use the following guidelines to classify minarets as they take their interactive slide tour of the Old City. Fatimid and Ayyubid Minarets: These are the earliest surviving minarets. They are usually short, square and often topped with a mabkhara ("incense pot") cap. Early Mamluk Minarets: These structures still have a square bases but are usually taller with three tiers. Late Mamluk Minarets: These minarets are three-tiered and highly decorated. They are wholly octagonal or cylindrical. Ottoman Minarets: These minarets are plain, slender, and circular. They are topped with pointed caps. (For illustrations of various types of minarets, see pages 28-29 of Caroline Williams, Islamic Monuments in Cairo: A Practical Guide and page 28 of Andrew Humphreys, Lonely Planet: Cairo.) A Walking Tour of Islamic Cairo The instructional material related to our walking tour of Islamic Cairo includes background information on several important monuments, fifty-eight color slides of the Old City, and a number of sample questions and act-it-out activities. Each slide described below will include at least one sample question. Some questions will be basic; others will be complex. For the interactive slide lecture to be effective, the teacher should prepare for each slide a set of questions that progress from the basic to the complex. Some slides will afford the student to step into and act out the scene. Our tour of the historic city consists of twenty-five stops. We will begin at the Mosque of al-Azhar, which is located on the south side of Sharia al-Azhar near a pedestrian underpass, which connects the area around al-Azhar with the eastern end of Khan al-Khalili and the Mosque of 8 10